QUESTION:
Brother Vasile, I would like to ask you to clarify one issue: two people, a man and a woman, who live together, as husband and wife, but have not officiated the religious wedding, the marriage, does the Pauline Principle apply to them? Are they husband and wife in God’s eyes?
No, these people are not husband and wife in the eyes of God because they live outside any legal framework. Neither in relation to the state are they husband and wife because they did not officiate their marriage at the civil status office, nor before God are they husband and wife because they did not officiate the wedding, that is, the religious marriage. They are concubines and, respectively, live in adultery as long as they do not put their lives and their relationship in order. For them are addressed directly the words of the Holy Scriptures which say:
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers. (Hebrews 13:4 NASB)
By living in cohabitation, they dishonor the institution of marriage established by God. They need to hurry to put their relationship with God in order through repentance and enter into the New Covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ and then register their marriage at the registry office and get married in the Church. God help them.
Translated by Ina Croitoru